1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a connection article for a cable comprising at least one wire. Moreover, the present invention also relates to holder for at least one connector for a cable. Finally, the present invention also relates to a kit for connecting cables.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a plurality of diverse applications it is necessary to connect electrical cables comprising at least one wire. One exemplary application for cables to be connected is the power line for traffic lights, street lamps for illuminating streets or public places or other electric loads for which cables having relatively rigid wires are used, In particular, cables comprising wires having larger cross sections are difficult to insert into the connectors arranged in a holder for holding a plurality of connectors. The stiffness of the individual wires makes it difficult to properly insert all the wires simultaneously in the individual receiving openings of the connectors
Another requirement of connection assemblies is that the individual connectors are arranged in a holder while being kept electrically insulated from each other. Typically, a connection article comprises a protective shell for receiving the holder which in turn comprises the individual connectors. After termination of the individual wires at the connectors, the holder is inserted into the protective shell and an encapsulant material for filling out the space within the protective shell around the holder is introduced into the protective shell. It is important that the encapsulant material keeps the individual wires and connectors spaced apart from each other by a minimum distance between adjacent cables and adjacent connectors.
Wire spacers for connection assemblies are known e.g. from EP-8-0 372 936 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,345. These wire spacers are designed as elements for keeping individual cables or wires separated from each other. The use of the known wire spacers for electrical connectors is rather complicated because the individual connectors have to be arranged around the wire spacers, which is time consuming and requires some training and experience.
Guiding means for aligning mating connector elements of a connection article are basically known. These known connection assemblies require two connector elements for each cable to be connected wherein the connector elements are guided relatively to each other. One example of such a connection article is disclosed in US-A-2005/0271328. The known systems require the termination of the wires to be connected at the mating connector elements which again results in the problem mentioned above if the wires are rather rigid due to the size of their cross sections.
From EP-8-1 180 823 a cable connection article is known in which individual pins of one mating connector element penetrate between the individual parallel conductor fibers of the wires of a cable fixedly arranged in the other mating connector element. In such a connector there is the risk that the electrical connection between the pins and the conductor fibers of the individual cables is not reliable.
In order to facilitate the insertion of wires in the receiving openings of electrical connectors it is known to provide the connection article with insertion guiding means. An example of such a connection article is disclosed in EP-B-0 763 873. The known insertion guiding means comprises a guiding passage having a conical shape and being tapered towards the connector receiving opening. However, in the known connection article it is still necessary that the individual wires are inserted into the connectors in a direction more or less parallel to the longitudinal extension of the connectors. Namely, otherwise it is still possible (and to be expected in particular for stiff wires) that the individual wires could contact an edge around the receiving openings of the individual connectors.
From DE-A-32 02 747 a plug is known comprising insertion funnel passages for connecting the wires of a cable to contact pins of the plug.
Another requirement for a multi-wire cable connection article is easy access to the fastening means (such as screws or the like) of the individual connectors. In particular, when the connectors are arranged for providing a compact connection article requiring only little space, an easy access to the fastening elements is still necessary.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved connection article fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements in an easy manner and which is easy to handle.